Hi And thanks for taking the time to read this posting.
I am trying to increase one rep max on the major body muscles but unfortunatly find myself unable to do so. I am 47 at the moment and was told that at this age body testosterone levels are too low to build appreciable amounts of muscle mass. I have tried the usual heavy days and light days routine, and also the starting off with 70% of one rep max and building up to 100% over the space of a month, but not much is happening.
I did meet a guy who is quite strong and he told me his routine: And it went something like this: Day 1: Deadlifts: set one 200 kg x 10 reps, set two 210 kg x 9 reps, set three 220 kg x 8 reps to total failure, using 45 seconds rest between sets and he does about half an hour of light weights and stretching beforehand. So just the one exercise but max intensity at the end.
The other six days he does 20 minutes of light weights, just something like 50 % of one rep max, so no struggling, apparently these are done to aid recovery and are meant to be easy days. And maybe some stationary bike work every now and again.
What do you guys think, apparently the deadlifts are good for boosting body testosterone levels and should work for everyone.
Finally just one last question, a friend of mine works in furniture removals, he used to work at the docks before, and he spends all day lugging heavy sofas and wardrobes around. The guy is so strong it’s unbelievable. Apparently the all over body workout (lifting with arms and legs) as he hauls furniture up and down stairs is great. It gives a really high hormonal output.
Unfortunalty it does contradict the relatively low volume, short but intense routines that most atheletes use, so i was wondering what you thought. Apparently the high volume (he lifts all day every day, but the body does seem to get used to it) boosts body hormone levels.
Thank you.
Well hormone levels are going to depend on the individual person. A rise in levels can come from the place in which you work i.e. construction v. office clerk. This is because one has to be more aggressive to work in such a place, which in turn raises their levels.
Now your friend is going to be strong because as you’ve said he lifts heavy things alll day, but this does not necessarily mean he will be strong on the weights. The general formula for building cross section is to do reps over 8 @ 60-75% max, but to build power one needs to do reps of 7 and fewer @ percentages of 75-100%.
Hope this helps.
Hi Austin. Great Post! Many thanks for the reply.
What do you think of the deadlifting routine. I’ve never done a workout like that before, even though there is one heavy day which might fatigue the central nervous system there is plenty of rest time available. Is there any way the routine may be improved do you think?
I usually go running every morning for about an hour, do you think this is a good idea, or should this be cut out in order to raise the one rep max.
Many thanks
No it doesnt sound to bad of a workout, i mean thats some pretty heavy weight to do that many reps per-set but i mean if he’s capable and being within the percentages i’ve listed above for those sort of reps then all the better. But it seems that he only does one heavy day a week? (Correct me if i’m not following right.) If you are lifting five days a week, i would have like at LEAST two heavy days. I personally only lift three days a week, Mond, Wed, & Fri. basically doing whole body work out, i.e. cleans, squat, rows, shoulder press, bench, deadlifts, etc. thos days being my sprint type days, and Tues, & Thurs. being my medball work with tempo runing (recovery). I find this allows for me to recover and to get in the power lifting I need without fatigueing myself to much. As far as going running in the morning, I dont think it would effect your max lifts to greatly (pending on proximity to lifting) plus the duration at which your running morely effects fats and suger usage (aerobic) & not carb usage (anaerobic).
One thing id say is that at 47, you have to be very careful about where you focus your resources. First of all it seems like bench is your main goal here and it is extremely extremely difficult even for the hormone loaded teen to substantially increase all of the three big lifts at once. What i would do is keep that 1 month percentage based routine you have and put it with a low volume leg day where u could do something like 2 sets of 6 of squats and a 2 sets of 6-8 for a SLD. The idea here tho is to keep EVERY workout to a low volume and to prevent soreness. On the bench day you can do your bench press and mix and match it with your choice of some pulling exercise like a row or pull down etc. But like I said id keep everything as short and simple as possible